Communication method and communication device

Abstract

The invention discloses a communication method and a communication device. The method comprises the following steps that: terminal equipment acquires ephemeris information, and the terminal equipment adjusts the direction of receiving and transmitting beams according to the ephemeris information. According to the invention, the method can adjust the direction of the receiving and transmitting beam through the ephemeris information, can avoid the frequent indication of the beam direction through TCI, and reduces the signaling overhead.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and a communication device. Background Art

[0002] Currently, the 5th generation (5G) new radio (NR) is designed for terrestrial communication characteristics and has the characteristics of providing high-speed, high-reliability, and low-latency communication for user terminals. Compared with terrestrial communication, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) communication has characteristics such as a large coverage area and flexible networking.

[0003] Beam management can manage the scanning, reporting, and maintenance of static beams, etc., select appropriate static beams for each channel, thereby improving cell coverage and saving system overhead. Among them, for the NR system, beam indication can be indicated based on the transmission configuration indication (TCI). Specifically, when the network device performs beam indication, it can indicate the quasi co-location (QCL) relationship with the reference signal by configuring the TCI state. The terminal device receives the beam direction, trains the receiving beam based on the measurement of the reference signal and for the received beam of the reference signal. In this way, when the terminal device receives data of the target reference signal / channel, it can adjust the direction of the receiving beam according to the QCL relationship with the reference signal.

[0004] In NTN communication, due to the dynamic movement of satellites, frequent beam direction indication through TCI will cause a large signaling overhead. Therefore, how to reduce the overhead of beam direction in the NTN communication system is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Embodiments of this application provide a communication method and a communication device. In the embodiments of this application, the terminal device can adjust the direction of the transceiver beam according to the ephemeris information of the network device, and the network device can adjust the direction of the transceiver beam according to the location information of the terminal device, which can avoid frequent beam direction indication through TCI, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

[0006] In a first aspect, embodiments of this application provide a communication method. This method can be executed by a terminal device, or by a module (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) applied to the terminal device, or by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device. This method can include: obtaining ephemeris information; adjusting the direction of the transceiver beam according to the ephemeris information.

[0007] In the solution provided by this application, a minimalist NTN beam management is provided. By using location-aided information such as ephemeris information, the NTN beam management is reconstructed. That is, the beam management using location-aided information in this embodiment can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

[0008] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: obtaining a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) threshold; performing measurement of the receiving beam when the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold. By implementing this possible implementation manner, the beam measurement dominated by the terminal device. Specifically, the terminal device may not perform periodic beam measurement reporting, and only request beam training when the channel condition is poor or the terminal device determines that beam training is required, thereby reducing the beam measurement and reporting overhead.

[0009] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: obtaining a preset duration; performing measurement of the receiving beam when the duration for which the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold reaches the preset duration. By implementing this possible implementation manner, the beam measurement dominated by the terminal device. Specifically, the terminal device may not perform periodic beam measurement reporting, and only request beam training when the channel condition is poor or the terminal device determines that beam training is required, thereby reducing the beam measurement and reporting overhead.

[0010] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: sending a request message, where the request message is used to request receiving beam training, and the request message includes a requested training time period; receiving a reference signal resource configured by the network device; and performing beam training according to the reference signal resource. By implementing this possible implementation manner, the terminal device can dominate the time of beam training, so that the network device configures the reference signal resource for the terminal device with reference to the request message of the terminal device, and the terminal device performs beam training according to the reference signal resource, thereby reducing the beam measurement and reporting overhead.

[0011] In a possible implementation manner, the request message further includes the number of beams requested for training. By implementing this possible implementation manner, the terminal device can dominate the number of beams for training, so that the network device configures the reference signal resource for the terminal device with reference to the request message of the terminal device, and the terminal device performs beam training according to the reference signal resource, thereby reducing the beam measurement and reporting overhead.

[0012] In a possible implementation, obtaining ephemeris information includes: obtaining transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state information, where the TCI state information includes ephemeris information. By implementing this possible implementation, ephemeris information is added to the TCI state information, thereby enabling the indication of beam advance acquisition during on-satellite beam switching and inter-satellite switching of the terminal device, and solving the problem of large signaling overhead caused by frequent TCI updates.

[0013] In a possible implementation, if the TCI state information includes ephemeris information and quasi co-location (QCL) type D is not configured, the pointing of the received beam is determined by the ephemeris information. By implementing this possible implementation, in a possible implementation manner, if ephemeris information is added to the TCI state information, it is also possible that the network device configures QCL type D in the TCI state information at the same time. When the terminal device receives this TCI state information, it may not be able to determine which indication to follow for adjusting the received beam. This embodiment can solve the conflict problem between QCL type D and ephemeris.

[0014] In a possible implementation, if the TCI state information includes ephemeris information and quasi co-location (QCL) type D is configured, the pointing of the received beam is determined by the indication of the QCL type D. By implementing this possible implementation, in a possible implementation manner, if ephemeris information is added to the TCI state information, it is also possible that the network device configures QCL type D in the TCI state information at the same time. When the terminal device receives this TCI state information, it may not be able to determine which indication to follow for adjusting the received beam. This embodiment can solve the conflict problem between QCL type D and ephemeris.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the TCI state information is carried in radio resource control (RRC), medium access control control element (MAC CE), or downlink control information (DCI).

[0016] In a possible implementation, the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0017] In a possible implementation, the method may further include: sending the location information of the terminal device, where the location information is used for the network device to adjust the beam direction, and the location information includes Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or wave position information.

[0018] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. This method can be executed by a terminal device, or by a module applied to the terminal device (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device. The method may include: receiving a first QCL type, where the first QCL type satisfies at least one of the following conditions: there is no source reference signal; it indicates that the beams used for the downlink transmission and the uplink transmission of the terminal device are the same; it indicates that the transceiver beam directions of the terminal device are adjusted according to ephemeris information; adjusting the receiving beam direction according to the first QCL type.

[0019] In the solution provided by the present application, a new QCL type (the first QCL type in the embodiment of the present application) is defined, and the terminal device can adjust the receiving beam direction according to the first QCL type and ephemeris information, which can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the method may further include: obtaining ephemeris information, where the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0021] In a possible implementation, receiving the first QCL type includes: receiving TCI status information, where the TCI status information includes the first QCL type.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the TCI status information further includes ephemeris information.

[0023] In a possible implementation, the TCI status information is carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI.

[0024] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method. This method can be executed by a network device, or by a module applied to the network device (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device. The method may include: obtaining the location information of the terminal device, where the location information includes GNSS information or wave position information; adjusting the transceiver beam directions according to the location information.

[0025] In the solution provided by this application, a minimalist NTN beam management is provided. Using location assistance information such as GNSS or wave position information, the NTN beam management is reconstructed. That is, the beam management using location assistance information in this embodiment can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

[0026] It should be understood that the execution entity of the third aspect can be a network device. The specific content of the third aspect corresponds to that of the first aspect. The corresponding features and beneficial effects of the third aspect can refer to the description of the first aspect. To avoid repetition, the detailed description is appropriately omitted here.

[0027] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: sending an RSRP threshold, which is used for the terminal device to determine the measurement of the receiving beam.

[0028] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: sending a preset duration, which is used for the terminal device to determine the measurement of the receiving beam.

[0029] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: receiving a request message, the request message is used to request receiving beam training, and the request message includes a requested training time period; configuring a reference signal resource for the terminal device according to the request message.

[0030] In a possible implementation manner, the request message further includes the number of beams requested for training.

[0031] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: sending ephemeris information, which is used for the terminal device to adjust the directions of the transmitting and receiving beams.

[0032] In a possible implementation manner, sending ephemeris information includes: sending TCI state information, and the TCI state information includes ephemeris information.

[0033] In a possible implementation manner, the reference signal resource is carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI; and / or the TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI.

[0034] In a possible implementation manner, the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0035] Fourthly, this application provides a communication method, which can be executed by a network device, or by a module (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) applied to the network device, or by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device. The method may include: sending a first QCL type, where the first QCL type satisfies at least one of the following conditions: there is no source reference signal; it indicates that the beams used for the downlink transmission and the uplink transmission of the terminal device are the same; it indicates that the transceiver beam directions of the terminal device are adjusted according to ephemeris information.

[0036] In the solution provided by this application, a new QCL type (the first QCL type in the embodiments of this application) is defined. The terminal device can adjust the receive beam direction according to the first QCL type and the ephemeris information, which can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

[0037] It should be understood that the execution subject of the fourth aspect may be a network device. The specific content of the fourth aspect corresponds to the content of the second aspect. The corresponding features and the beneficial effects achieved in the fourth aspect may refer to the description of the second aspect. To avoid repetition, the detailed description is appropriately omitted here.

[0038] In a possible implementation manner, the method may further include: sending ephemeris information, where the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0039] In a possible implementation manner, sending the first QCL type includes: sending TCI state information, where the TCI state information includes the first QCL type.

[0040] In a possible implementation manner, the TCI state information further includes ephemeris information.

[0041] In a possible implementation manner, the TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI.

[0042] Fifthly, this application provides a communication device, which includes a module / unit for executing any of the methods described in the first aspect and its possible implementations, and the second aspect and its possible implementations. The device may be a terminal device, or a module (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor) applied to the terminal device, or a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device.

[0043] Sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a module / unit for executing any of the methods described in the third aspect and its possible implementations, and the fourth aspect and its possible implementations. The device can be a network device, or a module applied to a network device (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor), or a logical node, a logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of a network device.

[0044] Seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which can be a terminal device, or a chip, a chip system, or a processor, etc. that supports the terminal device to implement the above method, or a logical node, a logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of a terminal device. Among them, the communication device can also be a chip system. The communication device can execute the methods described in the first aspect and the second aspect. The functions of the communication device can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions. The unit can be software and / or hardware. The operations and beneficial effects executed by the communication device can refer to the methods and beneficial effects described in the first aspect and the second aspect above, and the repeated parts will not be elaborated.

[0045] Eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which can be a network device, or a chip, a chip system, or a processor, etc. that supports the network device to implement the above method, or a logical node, a logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of a network device. Among them, the communication device can also be a chip system. The communication device can execute the methods described in the third aspect and the fourth aspect. The functions of the communication device can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions. The unit can be software and / or hardware. The operations and beneficial effects executed by the communication device can refer to the methods and beneficial effects described in the third aspect and the fourth aspect above, and the repeated parts will not be elaborated.

[0046] Ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed, the method executed by the terminal device in the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect is implemented; or, the method executed by the network device in the method described in the third aspect or the fourth aspect is implemented.

[0047] Tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product including a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the method executed by the terminal device in the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect is implemented; or, the method executed by the network device in the method described in the third aspect or the fourth aspect is implemented.

[0048] In the eleventh aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a communication device (such as a terminal device) for executing the methods described in the first aspect and the second aspect above, and a communication device (such as a network device) for executing the methods described in the third aspect and the fourth aspect above. Description of the Drawings

[0049] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a non-terrestrial communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a 5G satellite communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of downlink transmitter beam adjustment provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of downlink receiver beam adjustment provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] Figure 5 is an interaction schematic diagram of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] Figure 6 is an interaction schematic diagram of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] Figure 7 and Figure 8 are schematic diagrams of possible communication devices provided by embodiments of the present application. Detailed Embodiments

[0056] The following further describes the specific embodiments of the present application in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0057] Terms such as "first" and "second" in the specification, claims and drawings of the present application are used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. In addition, the terms "include" and "have" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally further includes steps or units not listed, or optionally further includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

[0058] References to "embodiments" in this specification mean that particular features, structures, or characteristics described in connection with the embodiments can be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The phrase appears in various places in the specification and does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it an independent or alternative embodiment mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Those skilled in the art will understand explicitly and implicitly that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

[0059] In this application, "at least one (item)" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more, "at least two (items)" means two or three or more, and "and / or" is used to describe the relationship between related objects and indicates that there can be three relationships. For example, "A and / or B" can mean: only A exists, only B exists, and both A and B exist simultaneously. Here, A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates an "or" relationship between the related objects before and after. "At least one (item) of the following" or a similar expression means any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one (item) of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c", where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0060] In this application, "sending information" can be understood as one device sending information to another device, or it can also be understood as a logical module within a device sending information to another logical module. For example, "a network device sends information" can be understood as the network device sending information to another device (such as a terminal device), or it can be understood as logical module 1 in the network device sending information to logical module 2 in the network device.

[0061] In this application, "receiving information" can be understood as one device receiving information from another device, or it can also be understood as a logical module within a device receiving information from another logical module. For example, "a network device receives information" can be understood as the network device receiving information from another device (such as a terminal device), or it can be understood as logical module 1 in the network device receiving information from logical module 2 in the network device.

[0062] In this application, "sending information to... (such as a terminal device)" can be understood as the destination of the information being the terminal device. It may include directly or indirectly sending information to the terminal device. "Receiving information from... (such as a terminal device)" or "receiving information originating from... (such as a terminal device)" can be understood as the source of the information being the terminal device, and it may include directly or indirectly receiving information from the terminal device. Necessary processing may be performed on the information between the source and the destination of the information transmission, such as format conversion, etc., but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in this application can be understood similarly, and will not be elaborated here.

[0063] To better understand the embodiments of this application, the system architecture involved in the embodiments of this application will be introduced first as follows:

[0064] The embodiments of this application can be applied to communication systems such as satellite communication, including satellite base stations, ground stations, and terminal device type network elements. The satellite base station provides communication services for terminal devices. The satellite base station transmits downlink data to terminal devices, where the data is encoded using channel coding. After channel coding, the data is transmitted to the terminal device after constellation modulation; the terminal device transmits uplink data to the satellite base station, and the uplink data can also be encoded using channel coding, and the encoded data is transmitted to the satellite base station after constellation modulation. The wireless communication system may include one or more network devices and one or more terminal devices.

[0065] Next, taking Figure 1 the system architecture shown as an example, the communication method provided by the embodiments of this application can be applied to NTN communication systems. As Figure 1 shown, the NTN communication system includes a network device 101 and a terminal device 102.

[0066] Among them, the terminal device 102 can also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), etc., or a device for providing voice or data connectivity to users. It can also be an Internet of Things device. For example, the terminal device includes handheld devices with wireless connection functions, vehicle-mounted devices, etc. Currently, the terminal device can be: a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a mobile internet device (MID), a wearable device (such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a pedometer, etc.), a vehicle-mounted device (such as a car, a bicycle, an electric vehicle, an airplane, a ship, a train, a high-speed train, etc.), a satellite terminal, a virtual reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (AR) device, an intelligent point of sale (POS) machine, a customer-premises equipment (CPE), a wireless terminal device in industrial control, a smart home device (such as a refrigerator, a TV, an air conditioner, an electric meter, etc.), a smart robot, a robotic arm, a workshop device, a wireless terminal device in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal device in remote medical treatment, a wireless terminal device in a smart grid, a wireless terminal device in transportation safety, a wireless terminal device in a smart city, or a wireless terminal device in a smart home, a flight device (such as a smart robot, a hot air balloon, a drone, an airplane), etc. The terminal device can also be other devices with the functions of a terminal device. For example, the terminal device can also be a device that serves as a terminal device in D2D communication.

[0067] The embodiments of this application do not limit the device form of the terminal device. The device for implementing the functions of the terminal device can be the terminal device; it can also be a device that can support the terminal device to implement this function, such as a chip system. This device can be installed in the terminal device or used in matching with the terminal device. In the embodiments of this application, the chip system can be composed of chips or can also include chips and other discrete devices.

[0068] The network device 101 can also be referred to as a satellite, a high-altitude platform, a high-altitude aircraft, or a satellite base station. The network device 101 provides communication services to the terminal device 102. The network device 101 can also be connected to the core network device. The network device is used to help the terminal device achieve wireless access.

[0069] In a possible scenario, the network device can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmitting and receiving point (TRP), a transmitting point (TP), a next generation NodeB (gNB), a next generation base station in a 6th generation (6G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, a satellite, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a network device in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system of a mobile switching center, that is, it can be deployed on a high-altitude platform or a satellite, etc. The network device can be a macro base station, a micro base station or an indoor station, a relay node or a donor node, or a radio controller in a CRAN scenario. The network device can also be a device that serves as a base station function in device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, drone communication, or machine communication. Optionally, the network device can also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an in-vehicle device, etc. For example, the network device in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can be a road side unit (RSU).

[0070] All or part of the functions of the network device in this application can also be implemented by software functions running on hardware, or by virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (such as a cloud platform). The network device in this application can also be a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the network device functions.

[0071] In another possible scenario, multiple network devices cooperate to assist the terminal device in achieving wireless access, and different network devices respectively implement some functions of the base station. For example, the network device can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU), etc. The CU and DU can be set separately, or can also be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as included in a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH). It can be understood that the network device can be a CU node, or a DU node, or a device including a CU node and a DU node. In addition, the CU can be classified as a network device in the radio access network (RAN), or the CU can be classified as a network device in the core network (CN), which is not limited here.

[0072] In different systems, the CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU, or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, the CU can also be called an O-CU (open CU), the DU can also be called an O-DU, the CU-CP can also be called an O-CU-CP, the CU-UP can also be called an O-CU-UP, and the RU can also be called an O-RU. For the convenience of description, in this application, the CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU, and RU are used as examples for description. Any one of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU, and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0073] Taking 5G as an example, a 5G satellite communication system architecture is as Figure 2 shown. The ground terminal device accesses the network through the 5G new air interface. The 5G base station is deployed on the satellite and is connected to the core network on the ground through a wireless link. At the same time, there is a wireless link between the satellites to complete the signaling interaction and user data transmission between the base stations. Figure 2 The description of the devices and interfaces in

[0074] 5G Core Network: Services such as user access control, mobility management, session management, user security authentication, and billing. It consists of multiple functional units and can be divided into control plane and data plane functional entities. The Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. The User Plane Function (UPF) is responsible for managing the transmission of user plane data, traffic statistics, etc. The Session Management Function (SMF) is mainly used for session management in the mobile network, such as session establishment, modification, and release.

[0075] Ground Station: Responsible for forwarding signaling and service data between the satellite base station and the 5G core network.

[0076] 5G New Radio: The wireless link between the terminal device and the base station.

[0077] Xn Interface: The interface between 5G base stations, mainly used for signaling interaction such as handover.

[0078] NG Interface: The interface between the 5G base station and the 5G core network, mainly for interacting with non-access stratum (NAS) signaling of the core network, etc., as well as user service data.

[0079] In the embodiments of the present application, the form of the network device is not limited. The device for implementing the functions of the network device can be the network device; it can also be a device capable of supporting the network device to implement this function, such as a chip system. This device can be installed in the network device or used in matching with the network device.

[0080] When describing the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application below, the device for implementing the functions of the network device is taken as a satellite to describe the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. It can be understood that when applying the solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application to a terrestrial communication system, the actions performed by the satellite can be applied to the base station or network device to perform. In addition, the above-mentioned satellite can be a geostationary satellite, non-geostationary satellite, artificial satellite, low-earth orbit satellite, medium-earth orbit satellite, high-earth orbit satellite, etc., which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0081] To facilitate the understanding of the content of this solution, some terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are further explained below to facilitate the understanding of those skilled in the art. This part is only for easy understanding and cannot be regarded as a specific limitation of the present application.

[0082] 1. Quasi-co-location

[0083] The large-scale attributes of the channel experienced by the symbols on a certain antenna port can be inferred from the signals experienced by the symbols on another antenna port. That is, quasi-co-location means that the large-scale attributes of two antenna ports are the same.

[0084] 2. Beam Management

[0085] The core of beam management is to manage the scanning, reporting, and maintenance of static beams, etc., select appropriate static beams for each channel, so as to improve cell coverage and save system overhead.

[0086] For the NR system, beam management may include:

[0087] (1) Beam Scanning: The beam that sends the reference signal performs spatial scanning at predefined time intervals;

[0088] (2) Beam Measurement / Judgment: The terminal device measures the reference signal and selects the best beam;

[0089] (3) Beam Reporting: For the terminal device, report the results of beam measurement;

[0090] (4) Beam Indication: The network device indicates the terminal device to select a specified beam;

[0091] (5) Beam Failure Recovery: Includes beam failure detection, discovery of new beams, and beam recovery procedures.

[0092] 3. Beam Adjustment

[0093] After establishing the initial beam pair, due to the movement and rotation of the mobile device, it is necessary to periodically re-evaluate the selection of the beam directions on the transmitter side and the receiver side. In addition, even for fixed devices, the movement of other objects in the environment may block or unblock different beam pairs, which means that it may be necessary to re-evaluate the selected beam directions. This beam adjustment may also include refining the beam shape, for example, making the beam narrower compared to the relatively wide beam used for initial beam establishment. In general, beamforming is about a beam pair composed of transmitter-side beamforming and receiver-side beamforming. Therefore, beam adjustment can be divided into two independent processes: given the current receiver-side beam direction, re-evaluate and possibly adjust the transmitter-side beam direction; given the current transmitter-side beam direction, re-evaluate and possibly adjust the receiver-side beam direction.

[0094] As described above, in general, beamforming including beam adjustment needs to be performed for the downlink and uplink transmission directions. However, if it can be assumed that the downlink / uplink beam correspondence, then only explicit beam adjustment needs to be performed in one of the directions, for example, in the downlink direction. Then it can be assumed that the adjusted downlink beam pair is also applicable to the opposite transmission direction.

[0095] Beam adjustment may include downlink transmitter beam adjustment, downlink receiver beam adjustment, and uplink beam adjustment.

[0096] For downlink transmitter beam adjustment, considering the receiver beam currently used at the device side, the downlink transmitter side beam adjustment aims to improve the network transmit beam. To this end, the device may measure a set of reference signals corresponding to different downlink beams. Reference Figure 3 , Figure 3 FIG. is a schematic diagram of a downlink transmitter beam adjustment provided by an embodiment of the present application. As Figure 3 shown, assuming analog beamforming, the transmissions within different downlink beams must be performed sequentially, i.e., by beam scanning. Then the measurement results are reported to the network, and the network can decide to adjust the current beam based on the report. It should be noted that this adjustment does not necessarily mean selecting one of the beams measured by the device. For example, the network may decide to use the beam direction between two reported beams for transmission. Additionally, during the measurement for transmitter side beam adjustment, the device receiver beam should remain fixed so that the quality of different transmitter beams can be captured given the current receive beam. To enable the measurement and reporting of a set of beams as outlined in Figure 3 , a reporting framework based on the reporting configuration can be used. More specifically, the measurement / reporting should be described by a reporting configuration with L1-RSRP as the quantity to be reported. The set of reference signals to be measured corresponding to the beam set should be included in the NZP-CSI-RS resource set associated with the reporting configuration. Such a resource set may include a set of configured CSI-RS or a set of SS blocks. Thus, beam management measurements can be performed on CSI-RS or SS blocks. In the case of L1-RSRP measurements based on CSI-RS, the CSI-RS should be limited to single-port or dual-port CSI-RS. In the latter case, the reported L1-RSRP should be the linear average of the L1-RSRP measured on each port. The device can report the measurement results corresponding to up to four reference signals (CSI-RS or SS blocks), in effect up to four beams, in a single reporting instance. Each such report may include: an indication of up to four reference signals, in effect beams, associated with that particular report; the L1-RSRP of the strongest measured beam; for the remaining up to three beams: the difference between the measured L1-RSRP and the L1-RSRP of the best measured beam.

[0097] For downlink receiver beam adjustment, the purpose of receiver side beam adjustment is to find the best receive beam given the current transmit beam. To achieve this, the device should again be configured with a set of downlink reference signals, which in this case are transmitted within the same network side beam (current serving beam). Reference Figure 4 , Figure 4This is a schematic diagram of downlink receiver beam adjustment provided by an embodiment of the present application. As Figure 4 shown, the device can then perform receiver-side beam scanning to sequentially measure the configured reference signals on a set of receiver beams. Based on these measurements, the device can adjust its current receiver beam. Downlink receiver-side beam adjustment can be based on a reporting configuration similar to that of transmitter-side beam adjustment. However, since receiver-side beam adjustment is done inside the device, there is no reporting volume associated with receiver-side beam adjustment. To allow analog beamforming at the receiver side, different reference signals in the resource concentration should be transmitted with different symbols, thus allowing the beam at the receiver side to sweep across the set of reference signals. At the same time, the device should be allowed to assume that different reference signals in the resource concentration are transmitted using the same spatial filter, which is actually the same transmission beam. Generally, the configured resource set includes a "repetition" flag that indicates whether the device can assume that all reference signals in the resource concentration are transmitted using the same spatial filter. For the resource set used for downlink receiver-side beam adjustment, the repetition flag should be set.

[0098] For uplink beam adjustment, the purpose of uplink beam adjustment is the same as that of downlink beam adjustment, that is, to maintain a suitable beam pair. In the case of uplink beam adjustment, it means a suitable transmit beam on the device side and a corresponding suitable receive beam on the network side. As described above, if it can be assumed that the beam correspondence exists and a suitable downlink beam pair has been established and retained, no explicit uplink beam management is required. Instead, it can be assumed that the suitable beam pair in the downlink transmission direction is also applicable to the uplink direction. It should be noted that vice versa, that is, if a suitable beam pair has been established and retained for the uplink direction, the same beam pair can also be used in the downlink direction without explicit downlink beam management. If explicit uplink beam adjustment is required, it can be carried out in substantially the same manner as downlink beam adjustment, with the main difference being that the network makes measurements based on the configured SRS instead of CSI-RS or SS blocks.

[0099] 4. Beam Indication and TCI

[0100] Downlink beamforming can be done transparently to the device, that is, the device does not need to know what beam the transmitter uses. However, NR also supports beam indication. In fact, this means notifying the device that a certain PDSCH and / or PDCCH transmission uses the same transmission beam as the configured reference signal (CSI-RS or SS block). More formally, it means notifying the device that a certain PDSCH and / or PDCCH is transmitted using the same spatial filter as the configured reference signal.

[0101] Specifically, beam indication is based on the configuration of transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and downlink signaling. Each TCI state includes information about reference signals (CSI-RS or SS blocks), etc. By associating a certain downlink transmission (PDCCH or PDSCH) with a certain TCI, the network notifies the device that it can assume that the downlink transmission is completed using the same spatial filter as the reference signal associated with that TCI. A device can be configured with up to 64 candidate TCI states at most. For beam indication of PDCCH, a subset of M configured candidate states is assigned to each configured CORESET by RRC signaling. Through MAC signaling, the network can more dynamically indicate that a specific TCI state in the subset configured for each CORESET is valid. When monitoring PDCCH in a certain CORESET, the device can assume that the PDCCH transmission uses the same spatial filter as the reference signal associated with the TCI indicated by MAC. In other words, if the device has earlier determined a suitable receiver-side beam direction for receiving the reference signal, the device can assume that the same beam direction is suitable for receiving the PDCCH. For PDSCH beam indication, there are two options according to the scheduling offset, that is, according to the transmission timing of the PDSCH relative to the PDCCH carrying the scheduling information of the corresponding PDSCH. If this scheduling offset is greater than N symbols, the DCI allocated by the scheduling can explicitly indicate the TCI state of the PDSCH transmission. To achieve this, the device is first configured with a set of up to eight TCI states (from the initially configured states) as a set of candidate TCI states. The three-bit indicator in the DCI then indicates the exact TCI state that is valid for the scheduled PDSCH transmission. If the scheduling offset is less than or equal to N symbols, the device should instead assume that the PDSCH transmission is QCL with the corresponding PDCCH transmission. In other words, the TCI state of the PDCCH state indicated by MAC signaling should be assumed to be valid for the corresponding scheduled PDSCH transmission. The reason for restricting the fully dynamic TCI selection based on DCI signaling to the case where the scheduling offset is greater than a certain value is simple. For a shorter scheduling offset, the device will not have enough time to decode the TCI information DCI within the scheduling offset and adjust the receiver beam accordingly before receiving the PDSCH.

[0102] Currently, for the NR system, beam indication can be indicated based on TCI. Specifically, there is a set of QCL configurations for high frequency and low frequency respectively, whose source reference signal is SSB or CSI-RS, and the target reference signal / channel is CSI-RS, the DMRS of PDCCH, and the DMRS of PDSCH. The types of QCL are divided into four types, typeA, typeB, typeC, typeD, and the channel characteristics represented are as shown in Table 1 below.

[0103] Table 1 QCL relationships in the NR system

[0104] QCL type Description QCL-type A Doppler frequency shift, Doppler spread, mean delay, delay spread QCL-type B Doppler frequency shift, Doppler spread QCL-type C Mean delay, Doppler frequency shift QCL-type D Spatial Rx parameter

[0105] When a network device performs beam indication, it can indicate the QCL relationship with the reference signal by configuring the TCI state, and use type D to indicate the spatial filter. The terminal device receives the beam direction, trains based on the measurement of the reference signal and for the receive (Rx) beam of the reference signal. In this way, when the terminal device receives data of the target reference signal / channel, it can adjust the direction of the receive beam according to the QCL relationship with the reference signal.

[0106] However, when applying QCL type D for beam indication in the NTN communication system, the following problems may exist:

[0107] 1. If the source signal of QCL is a periodic signal, there is a problem of a long period (SSB: 5 ms - 160 ms; CSI-RS: 4 - 640 slots). The satellite moves at a high speed, and there is a problem that the receive beam based on the source signal expires. Especially for very small aperture terminal (VSAT) with extremely narrow beams, the half-power beamwidth (HPBW) may be about 1 degree.

[0108] 2. The satellite moves dynamically, frequently indicates the beam direction through TCI, and needs to frequently update TCI (especially in the earth-moving scenario), which will cause a large signaling overhead.

[0109] Therefore, how to reduce the overhead of beam direction in the NTN communication system is an urgent problem to be solved.

[0110] The embodiment of this application proposes a communication method, which can achieve extremely simple NTN beam management. By using ephemeris information and position-aided information such as GNSS, it reconstructs NTN beam management, can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, and thus reduces the signaling overhead. The following will be described through the following respective embodiments. In each embodiment of this application, if there is no special description and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referred to. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their internal logical relationships.

[0111] The communication method provided by the embodiments of this application will be described below. It can be understood that in this application, a network device and a terminal device are used as examples of the execution entities of this interaction schematic, but this application does not limit the execution entities of the interaction schematic. For example, the method executed by the network device in this application can also be executed by a module applied to the network device (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor), and can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device; the method executed by the terminal device in this application can also be executed by a module applied to the terminal device (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor), and can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device. Among them, the network device can be a satellite, and this satellite can be a geostationary satellite, a non-geostationary satellite, an artificial satellite, a low-orbit satellite, a medium-orbit satellite, a high-orbit satellite, etc., and the embodiments of this application do not make specific limitations.

[0112] Please refer to Figure 5 , Figure 5 which is an interaction schematic diagram of a communication method provided by the embodiments of this application. As Figure 5 shown, the communication method may include at least the following steps.

[0113] S501. The terminal device obtains ephemeris information from the network device.

[0114] Ephemeris information can be understood as the accurate orbit data of the network device (satellite) itself.

[0115] A possible implementation manner is to obtain ephemeris information through TCI status information. Specifically, the network device can send TCI status information to the terminal device, and the TCI status information includes the above ephemeris information. Among them, the ephemeris information can be the ephemeris information of the cell (serving cell) where the terminal device is currently located or the transmit-receive point (TRP), or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell. It can be understood that if the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, the terminal device can perform in-satellite beam switching according to the ephemeris information; if the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell, the terminal device can perform inter-satellite beam switching according to the ephemeris information. When used for inter-satellite beam switching, the terminal device can obtain the pointing of the receiving beam in advance.

[0116] The TCI status information can be carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI.

[0117] S502. The terminal device adjusts the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the ephemeris information.

[0118] After the terminal device obtains the ephemeris information from the network device, it can adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the ephemeris information.

[0119] In a possible implementation, if the ephemeris information is added to the TCI state information, it is also possible that the network device configures QCL typeD in the TCI state information at the same time. When the terminal device receives the TCI state information, it may not be able to determine which instruction to follow for adjusting the receive beam. Based on the conflict problem between QCL typeD and the ephemeris, the following processing methods can be adopted:

[0120] If the TCI state information includes the ephemeris information and QCL typeD is not configured, the pointing of the receive beam is determined by the ephemeris information;

[0121] If the TCI state information includes the ephemeris information and QCL typeD is configured, the pointing of the receive beam is determined by the indication of QCL typeD.

[0122] Adding the ephemeris information to the TCI state information can indicate the in-satellite beam switching and the beam advance acquisition during inter-satellite switching of the terminal device, and solve the problem of large signaling overhead caused by frequent TCI updates.

[0123] S503. The network device obtains the location information of the terminal device from the terminal device.

[0124] The network device can send the location information of the terminal device to the terminal device, and the location information includes GNSS information or wave position information.

[0125] S504. The network device adjusts the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the location information of the terminal device.

[0126] After the network device obtains the location information of the terminal device from the terminal device, it can adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the location information of the terminal device.

[0127] The beam pair maintenance can be default between the network device and the terminal device, that is, the network device can determine the pointing of the transmit / receive beam based on the location information of the terminal device, and the terminal device can adjust the pointing of the receive / transmit beam based on the obtained ephemeris information.

[0128] Furthermore, the terminal device can dominate the beam measurement mechanism. There may be a situation where the beam pair is misaligned on the terminal device side. Especially for VSAT terminal devices, a beam correction mechanism is required. For the NTN system, the network device moves at a high speed, and the terminal device needs to complete beam training within a certain time. In addition, due to the different beam widths of the terminal device, the number of beams to be trained and the completion time are different.

[0129] The triggering of the beam measurement of the terminal device can be carried out in the following two ways:

[0130] In a possible implementation, the terminal device can obtain the RSRP threshold, and perform measurement of the receiving beam when the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold.

[0131] In a possible implementation, the terminal device can obtain the RSRP threshold and a preset duration (for example, the terminal device maintains a timer timer), and perform receiving beam measurement when the duration for which the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold reaches the preset duration.

[0132] Furthermore, the terminal device can also dominate the number and time of beam training. Specifically, the terminal device can send a request message to the network device, where the request message is used to request receiving beam training, and the request message includes a requested training time period, or the request message includes a requested training time period and the number of beams to be trained. After receiving the request message, the network device can configure reference signal resources for the terminal device with reference to the requested training time period in the request message, or with reference to the requested training time period and the number of beams to be trained in the request message, and the terminal device performs beam training based on the reference signal resources. Among them, the reference signal can be a CSR-RS signal. The reference signal resources can be notified to the terminal device by the network device through signaling such as RRC, MAC CE, or DCI.

[0133] It can be understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The magnitude of the sequence numbers of the above processes does not mean the sequence of execution. For example, the execution sequence of step S501 and step S503 above can be unrestricted. Step S503 can also be executed before step S501, or step S503 can be executed simultaneously with step S501. The execution sequence of each process should be determined according to its function and internal logic.

[0134] Generally, the system needs to configure periodic signals for beam measurement, reporting, and adjustment. The embodiments of the present application provide an extremely simple NTN beam management, which uses ephemeris information and position assistance information such as GNSS or wave position information to reconstruct the NTN beam management, that is, the beam management using position assistance information in this embodiment can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, thereby reducing signaling overhead. In addition, a simplified beam measurement trigger and request method is also provided, which is a beam measurement mechanism dominated by the terminal device. Specifically, the terminal device can refrain from performing periodic beam measurement reporting and only request beam training when the channel condition is poor or the terminal device determines that receiving beam training is required, thereby reducing beam measurement and reporting overhead.

[0135] That is to say, the network device and the terminal device communicate using default beams. When certain conditions are met (i.e., the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold or the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold for a preset duration), the terminal device triggers a beam training request. The network device configures the reference signal resources according to the training time and the number of beams requested by the terminal device, thereby reducing the beam measurement and reporting overhead.

[0136] An embodiment of the present application proposes a communication method that can achieve extremely simple NTN beam management, defines a new QCLtype (the first QCL type in the embodiment of the present application), and applies it to all signals / channels. This first QCL type indicates that the beam direction of the terminal device for receiving is adjusted according to the ephemeris information, reconstructing the NTN beam management, and can avoid frequently indicating the beam direction through TCI, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

[0137] Please refer to Figure 6 , Figure 6 is an interaction diagram of another communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application. As Figure 6 shown, this communication method may include at least the following steps.

[0138] S601. The network device sends the first QCL type to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first QCL type from the network device.

[0139] The embodiment of the present application can define a new QCL, that is, the first QCL type, which can also be called QCL typeE. This QCL type can meet at least one of the following conditions:

[0140] There is no source reference signal;

[0141] Adopt a common TCI configuration. Once the first QCL type is configured, it implicitly indicates that the beams used for the downlink transmission (receiving of downlink signals / channels) and the uplink transmission (sending of uplink signals / channels) of the terminal device are the same;

[0142] Indicate that the beam directions of the transceiver of the terminal device are adjusted according to the ephemeris information.

[0143] S602. The terminal device adjusts the direction of the receiving beam according to the first QCL type.

[0144] After receiving the first QCL type from the network device, the terminal device can adjust the direction of the receiving beam according to the first QCL type.

[0145] Regarding the use of the first QCL type, there are two ways: in-beam switching within a satellite and inter-satellite beam switching. Specifically:

[0146] For in-satellite beam switching: The network device sends down the first QCL type, and the terminal device adjusts the pointing of the receiving beam according to the ephemeris information of the current cell (serving cell) or the serving TRP.

[0147] For inter-satellite beam switching: The network device sends down the first QCL type and sends the ephemeris information of the target satellite to the terminal device. The terminal device can adjust the pointing of the receiving beam according to the ephemeris information of the target cell or the target TRP.

[0148] In the embodiments of the present application, a new QCL type (the first QCL type in the embodiments of the present application) is defined. The terminal device can adjust the pointing of the receiving beam according to the first QCL type and the ephemeris information, which can avoid frequently indicating the beam pointing through TCI, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

[0149] It can be understood that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the terminal device and the network device include the corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules for executing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, combining the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed in the way of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenarios and design constraint conditions of the technical solution.

[0150] Figure 7 and Figure 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. The communication device can be a terminal device or a network device. The communication device includes modules or units corresponding one by one to the methods / operations / steps / actions executed by the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiments. The unit can be a hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be one of the terminal devices 102 as shown in Figure 1 , or the network device 101 as shown in Figure 1 , or a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device or the network device.

[0151] As Figure 7 shown, the communication device 700 may include a processing unit 701 and a transceiver unit 702. The communication device 700 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the method embodiments shown in the above Figure 5 and Figure 6 .

[0152] When the communication device 700 is used to implement Figure 5 the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiments shown:

[0153] The processing unit 701 is configured to obtain ephemeris information;

[0154] The processing unit 701 is further configured to adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the ephemeris information.

[0155] In a possible implementation, the processing unit 701 is further configured to obtain an RSRP threshold; when the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold, perform measurement of the receive beam.

[0156] In a possible implementation, the processing unit 701 is further configured to obtain a preset duration; when the duration for which the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold reaches the preset duration, perform receive beam measurement.

[0157] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit 702 is configured to send a request message, where the request message is used to request receive beam training, and the request message includes a requested training time period;

[0158] The transceiver unit 702 is further configured to receive a reference signal resource configured by a network device; perform beam training according to the reference signal resource.

[0159] In a possible implementation, the request message further includes the number of beams requested for training.

[0160] In a possible implementation, the processing unit 701 obtains ephemeris information, specifically for obtaining TCI state information, and the TCI state information includes ephemeris information.

[0161] In a possible implementation, if the TCI state information includes ephemeris information and quasi - co - location QCL typeD is not configured, the pointing of the receive beam is determined by the ephemeris information.

[0162] In a possible implementation, if the TCI state information includes ephemeris information and quasi - co - location QCL typeD is configured, the pointing of the receive beam is determined by the indication of the QCL typeD.

[0163] In a possible implementation, the TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE or DCI.

[0164] In a possible implementation, the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0165] A possible implementation. The transceiver unit 702 is further configured to send the location information of the terminal device, where the location information is used for the network device to adjust the beam direction, and the location information includes GNSS or wave position information.

[0166] When the communication device 700 is used to implement Figure 6 the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown:

[0167] The transceiver unit 702 is configured to receive a first QCL type, and the first QCL type satisfies at least one of the following conditions: there is no source reference signal; it indicates that the beams used for the downlink transmission and the uplink transmission of the terminal device are the same; it indicates that the transceiver beam directions of the terminal device are adjusted according to the ephemeris information.

[0168] The processing unit 701 is configured to adjust the direction of the receiving beam according to the first QCL type.

[0169] A possible implementation. The processing unit 701 is further configured to obtain ephemeris information, where the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0170] A possible implementation. The transceiver unit 702 receives the first QCL type, and specifically is configured to receive TCI state information, and the TCI state information includes the first QCL type.

[0171] A possible implementation. The TCI state information further includes ephemeris information.

[0172] A possible implementation. The TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE or DCI.

[0173] When the communication device 700 is used to implement Figure 5 the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown:

[0174] The processing unit 701 is configured to obtain the location information of the terminal device, where the location information includes GNSS information or wave position information;

[0175] The processing unit 701 is further configured to adjust the directions of the transceiver beams according to the location information.

[0176] A possible implementation. The transceiver unit 702 is configured to send an RSRP threshold, and the RSRP threshold is used for the terminal device to determine to perform the measurement of the receiving beam.

[0177] A possible implementation. The transceiver unit 702 is further configured to send a preset duration, and the preset duration is used for the terminal device to determine to perform the measurement of the receiving beam.

[0178] A possible implementation, the transceiver unit 702 is further configured to receive a request message, where the request message is used to request beam training reception, and the request message includes a requested training time period;

[0179] The transceiver unit 702 is further configured to configure reference signal resources for the terminal device according to the request message.

[0180] A possible implementation, the request message further includes the number of beams for which training is requested.

[0181] A possible implementation, the transceiver unit 702 is further configured to send ephemeris information, where the ephemeris information is used for the terminal device to adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam.

[0182] A possible implementation, the transceiver unit 702 is further configured to send TCI state information, where the TCI state information includes ephemeris information.

[0183] A possible implementation, the reference signal resources are carried in RRC, MAC CE or DCI; and / or the TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE or DCI.

[0184] A possible implementation, the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0185] When the communication device 700 is used to implement Figure 6 the functions of the network device in the method embodiments shown:

[0186] The transceiver unit 702 is configured to send a first QCL type, where the first QCL type satisfies at least one of the following conditions: there is no source reference signal; it indicates that the beams used for downlink transmission and uplink transmission by the terminal device are the same; it indicates that the pointing of the transceiver beam of the terminal device is adjusted according to the ephemeris information.

[0187] A possible implementation, the transceiver unit 702 is further configured to send ephemeris information, where the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

[0188] A possible implementation, the transceiver unit 702 is further configured to send TCI state information, where the TCI state information includes the first QCL type.

[0189] A possible implementation, the TCI state information further includes ephemeris information.

[0190] A possible implementation, the TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE or DCI.

[0191] For a more detailed description of the above processing unit 701 and transceiver unit 702, reference may be made to Figure 5 and Figure 6 the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments shown.

[0192] Such as Figure 8 A communication device 800 provided as shown is used to implement the functions of the above terminal device or network device. The device can be a communication device or a device in a communication device. The communication device can be a terminal device or a network device. The device in a communication device can be a chip system or a chip in the communication device. Among them, the chip system can be composed of chips or can include chips and other discrete devices.

[0193] The communication device 800 includes at least one processor 810, which is used to implement the processing function of the device (such as a network device or a terminal device) in the method provided in the embodiments of the present application. The communication device 800 may further include a communication interface 820, which is used to implement the transceiver operation of the device (such as a network device or a terminal device) in the method provided in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication interface can be a transceiver, a circuit, a bus, a module, or other types of communication interfaces, and is used to communicate with other devices through a transmission medium. For example, the communication interface 820 in the communication device 800 can communicate with other devices. The processor 810 uses the communication interface 820 to send and receive data, and is used to implement the method described in the above method embodiments.

[0194] The communication device 800 may further include at least one memory 830, which is used to store program instructions and / or data. The memory 830 is coupled to the processor 810. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, and can be electrical, mechanical, or other forms, and is used for information interaction between devices, units, or modules. The processor 810 may cooperate with the memory 830. The processor 810 may execute the program instructions stored in the memory 830. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

[0195] In the embodiments of the present application, the specific connection medium between the above communication interface 820, processor 810, and memory 830 is not limited. In the embodiments of the present application Figure 8 it is shown that the memory 830, processor 810, and communication interface 820 are connected through a bus. The bus is represented by a thick line in Figure 8 and the connection manners between other components are only for illustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For the sake of simplicity of representation, Figure 8 only one thick line is used to represent it in

[0196] When the communication device 800 is specifically a device for a device (such as a network device or a terminal device), for example, when the communication device 800 is specifically a chip or a chip system, what the communication interface 820 outputs or receives can be a baseband signal. When the communication device 800 is specifically a device (such as a network device or a terminal device), what the communication interface 820 outputs or receives can be a radio frequency signal. In the embodiments of the present application, the processor can be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and can implement or execute the various methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in combination with the embodiments of the present application can be directly embodied as being executed and completed by a hardware processor, or executed and completed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

[0197] It should be noted that the above communication interface 820 can be used to perform the functions of the foregoing transceiver unit 702, and the above processor 810 can be used to perform the functions of the foregoing processing unit 701, which will not be elaborated herein.

[0198] When the above communication device is a chip applied to a terminal device, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiments, and the terminal device chip receives information from other network elements; or, the terminal device chip sends information to other network elements.

[0199] When the above communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the network device chip implements the functions of the network device in the above method embodiments. The network device chip receives information from other network elements; or, the network device chip sends information to other network elements.

[0200] It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing unit (CPU), and can also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0201] The method steps in the embodiments of this application can be implemented in a hardware manner or by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can consist of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in a random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disks, removable hard disks, CD-ROMs, or any other form of storage medium well-known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC can be located in a network device or a terminal device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the terminal device or the network device.

[0202] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of this application are executed in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer program or instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted through the computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that the computer can access or a data storage device such as a server integrating one or more available media. The available medium can be a magnetic medium, for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; it can also be an optical medium, for example, a DVD; or it can be a semiconductor medium, for example, a solid state disk (SSD).

[0203] In the various embodiments of this application, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their internal logical relationships.

[0204] It should be understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and do not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The magnitudes of the sequence numbers of the above processes do not mean the sequence of execution is prior or subsequent, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined according to its function and internal logic.

[0205] The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the computer-executable instructions are executed, the methods executed by the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiments are implemented.

[0206] The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, which includes a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the methods executed by the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiments are implemented.

[0207] The embodiments of the present application also provide a communication system, which includes a terminal device or a network device. Among them, the terminal device is used to execute the methods executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments. The network device is used to execute the methods executed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

[0208] It should be noted that for the foregoing method embodiments, for the sake of simple description, they are all expressed as a series of action combinations. However, those skilled in the art should know that the present application is not limited by the described action sequence, because according to the present application, some steps can be performed in other sequences or simultaneously. Secondly, those skilled in the art should also know that the embodiments described in the specification are all preferred embodiments, and the actions and modules involved are not necessarily essential to the present application.

[0209] The descriptions of the embodiments provided in the present application can be referred to each other. The descriptions of each embodiment have their own emphases. For the parts not detailed in a certain embodiment, reference can be made to the relevant descriptions of other embodiments. For the convenience and brevity of description, for example, the functions and steps executed by the various devices and equipment provided in the embodiments of the present application can be referred to the relevant descriptions of the method embodiments of the present application. The method embodiments can also refer to, combine or quote each other among the device embodiments.

[0210] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, rather than to limit them; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: they can still modify the technical solutions recorded in the foregoing embodiments, or perform equivalent replacements on some or all of the technical features; and these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, Including: Obtain ephemeris information; Adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the ephemeris information.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method further includes: Obtain the reference signal received power (RSRP) threshold; When the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold, perform measurement of the receive beam.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein The method further includes: Obtain a preset duration; When the duration for which the RSRP of the terminal device is lower than the RSRP threshold reaches the preset duration, perform receive beam measurement.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a request message, the request message being used to request receive beam training, the request message including a requested training time period; Receive a reference signal resource configured by a network device; Perform beam training according to the reference signal resource.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The request message further includes the number of beams requested for training.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, characterized in that, The obtaining of the ephemeris information includes: Obtain transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state information, the TCI state information including the ephemeris information.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein If the ephemeris information is included in the TCI state information and quasi co-location (QCL) type D is not configured, the pointing of the receive beam is determined by the ephemeris information.

8. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that, If the ephemeris information is included in the TCI state information and QCL type D is configured, the pointing of the receive beam is determined by the indication of the QCL type D.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6-8, characterized in that, The TCI state information is carried in radio resource control (RRC), medium access control control element (MAC CE), or downlink control information (DCI).

10. The method according to any one of claims 1-9, characterized in that, The ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send the location information of the terminal device, the location information being used for the network device to adjust the pointing of the beam, the location information including global navigation satellite system (GNSS) information or beam position information.

12. A communication method, characterized in that, Including: Obtain the location information of the terminal device, the location information including GNSS information or beam position information; Adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam according to the location information.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein The method further includes: Send the RSRP threshold, the RSRP threshold being used for the terminal device to determine to perform measurement of the receive beam.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein The method further includes: Send the preset duration, the preset duration being used for the terminal device to determine to perform measurement of the receive beam.

15. The method according to any one of claims 12 - 14, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive a request message, the request message being used to request receive beam training, the request message including a requested training time period; Configure a reference signal resource for the terminal device according to the request message.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein The request message further includes the number of beams requested for training.

17. The method according to any one of claims 12-16, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send the ephemeris information, the ephemeris information being used for the terminal device to adjust the pointing of the transceiver beam.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein The sending of the ephemeris information includes: Send the TCI state information, the TCI state information including the ephemeris information.

19. The method according to claim 15 or 18, characterized in that The reference signal resource is carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI; and / or The TCI state information is carried in RRC, MAC CE, or DCI.

20. The method according to any one of claims 11-19, characterized in that, The ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the cell where the terminal device is currently located, or the ephemeris information is the ephemeris information of the target cell.

21. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 1-11, or a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 12-20.

22. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes: A processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store programs or instructions, when the programs or instructions are executed by the processor, the device is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-20.

23. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, Computer programs or instructions are stored in the storage medium, when the computer programs or instructions are executed, the method according to any one of claims 1-20 is implemented.

24. A computer program product, characterized in that, It includes computer program code, when the computer program code is run, the method according to any one of claims 1-20 is implemented.

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